40 Year Itch : The Godfather in Africa

James Brown performing as part of Zaire 74, a Don King produced all star concert that was supposed to part of the same weekend Muhammad Ali fought George Foreman. Foreman injured himself training so the fight was delayed by six weeks. Other performers at Zaire 74 include BB King, BVill Withers, The Spinners and the Fania All Stars,

40 Year Itch: That Latin Thing

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If Latin music was ever going to crack the mainstream, 1974 was the year it would happen. And Fania, the most important label in New York, was probably going to release it. That fact it never happened is our loss. We settled for whitewashed disco from the likes of KC and the Sunshine Band and the Miami-based Bee Gees instead.

     Among the albums we--as a Nation-- missed out on are Fania All Stars's Latin-Soul-Rock, released a year after 45-thousand fans packed Yankee Stadium. The album features some of the tunes played that night including the precursor to a myriad of 70's disco tunes : "Smoke".

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   Fania co-founder Johnny Pacheco provides the grooves for  the legendary "La Guarachera de Cuba" Celia Cruz for a straightforward set featuring the brassy Afro-rumba hit, "Quimbara". This is where your Celia Cruz infatuation should start.

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     A tribute to the hard driving tipica sounds of 1950's Cuba, Larry Harlow's Salsa was a big hit on Latin dance floors thanks to high energy horn charts played by some of Fania's best musicians. Harlow studied old 78's to get the 'authentico' sound.  "No Quiero" is sung by Junior Gonzalez. who gave Harlow the nickname "The Jewish Marvel". Harlow--no longer an outsider on the Salsa scene-- would soon put a kid he met in the mailroom a chance to sing with his band. The kid's name is Rueben Blades.

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      Recorded at Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios, The Sun of Latin Music fuses Latin dance music with acid rock. The standout cut is the 14 minute "Un Dia Bonito" which begins with a dramatic 5 minute free-jazz piano solo, transitions into a horror film soundtrack, and then launches into a swinging dance number featuring a 16 year old vocalist named Lalo Rodriguez . The Sun of Latin Music is the first salsa album to win a Grammy.

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   From Puerto Rico, timbale master Rafael Cortijo along with some young musicians from the University of Puerto Rico play traditional bomba and plena rhythms in support of experimental jazz fusion . According to 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die author Tom Moon, "the result is one of the most imaginative cross-genre eruptions in Latin music history".

40 Year Itch: The Fania All Stars Play Yankee Stadium

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Billed as a "night of Latin, soul and rock music", the Fania All Star concert at Yankee Stadium drew 45,000 people and alerted the rest of the music industry that something special was happening in New York. The stars of the Fania label include some artists previously discussed this year: Ray Barretto, Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe. On August 24, 1973 they were joined on a stage loaded with swinging talent.

Watch Johnny Pacheco lead the band through what has been called "the greatest Latin concert ever staged"

            After the Fania All Stars played, Billboard Magazine reports the popular Puerto Rican group El Gran Combo performed, dazzling the crowd with their green jump suits and Motown choreography. Then Manu Dibango took the stage and drew people out of their seats and onto the field with his "Soul Makossa".

In his book Love Goes to Buildings on Fire Will Hermes describes the same scene but claims the Fania All Stars brought the crowd onto the field, waving Puerto Rican flags and cheering. The concert was canceled at that moment and the crowd reacted with fury:

People began climbing onto the stage; some decide to go shopping. By the time things settle down, there is little left onstage besides cables and mic stands; someone has even made off with Larry Harlow's piano. 

The live album that followed includes Hector Lavoe's huge hit "Mi Gente" which was actually recorded in Puerto Rico months later. He never got to sing that night. Check out Lavoe in Zaire a year later.



           
           Maybe it was the language barrier but despite Santana's success and the fact that every major rock band seemed to be adding conga drums and bongos to their live acts,  the salsa scene never found crossover success in mainstream America. That didn't keep Stevie Wonder from joining the Fania All Stars in future concerts.

     This month 1001Songs will be flying around the world to see how the prog rocks sounds of Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd infected musicians despite cultural and language differences.